


A Place To Chat

by HenryMars



Category: Soul Star - Fandom
Genre: I demand more lore but until then, I've been writing for Kau a lot lately and I adore her, Ice Magic, Magic, Other, This game still isn't out yet and I've written how many fics for this fandom??, my headcanons are canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-25 07:58:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17721230
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HenryMars/pseuds/HenryMars
Summary: Sometimes unexpected wisdom comes from dreams. Other times, it's great fear. For once since The Incident, Kaumudi finds the former.





	A Place To Chat

**Author's Note:**

> I've invested my coolest ideas -- no pun intended -- into this fandom and this episode features a lot of lore-building about how I think magic in general works but also I think it would work like this in this game too.  
> Teaser for this rad thing is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McrTk7TZ9FM&t  
> And maybe I should be smart and plug the Twitter, where you can see all the designs for the characters here: @ProjectSoulStar  
> I'm going to fight for more lore drops soon that don't involve cryptic ciphers c'mon Nem I'm a writer I'm not smart

Kaumudi finds no rest in sleep. Usually she has night terrors, or plain-old nightmares involving ice and snow. Both of those sucked and always involved her waking in a sweat as cold as the northern winters, with full-body shakes and heavy panting. Those nightmares were of blizzards so deep and impenetrable that it drowned entire star systems in snow and ice. When she rested, she rarely found solace.

Hacim helped when he could; he chases away storms with his smile and permanently-pleasant conversation. He calmed her down in a familial way, like having an older brother (although she was older by two years). He listened to her dreams, pacified her fears, warmed her with his presence. He was like a rock heated by the sun; she found peace lazing away with him. Yet it could never truly chase away the cold that wormed into her bones. Its intensity has lessened for sure, thankfully; the extra training with Hacim gave her a new control, a new clarity she had lacked. A positive outlet for her pent-up anxiety and fears, and she was getting better, finally, at controlling her element. It just wasn’t enough to drive away  _ all _ her nightmares.

Tonight was  _ different _ , very much so. Usually Kaumudi’s dreams started with her trudging through a blizzard and ended with a planet or few frozen solid. However, her dream tonight was...blank. She was drifting in a void, cold and lonely, eyes closed or open, it was too dark to distinguish the difference. (Honestly, this was already better, preferable to the usual turmoil her glacial dreams brought.) Ice gathered in her chest, feeling sky-blue, turquoise, and cyan. A sparkling spectrum of blue, trickling from her fingers and toes to her heart, leaving her limbs feeling somehow empty. A ball of light formed then, glowing a brilliant blue-white that grew bigger and bigger on her breast until it separated. All at once, she was hit with the heat and warmth of life that she hasn’t truly felt since The Incident that granted her ice magic. Kaumudi righted herself in the void and watched the light lazily dance in a spiral before growing into a humanoid shape. It was a bright silhouette, but Kaumudi could see hair as long as hers, all the same curves, around the same height, too. Then, the light solidified, and before her sat a sculpture of her composed entirely of ice. And as she watched, two eyes like sapphires opened up and a smile cracked the faceted face.

“Hello, Kaumudi,” came a voice almost exactly like her own, but with a tinkling undertone, like windchimes, or glasses clinking together. “I am the Ice Within, and I believe we’re long overdue for a talk.”

Kaumudi didn’t know what to say for the longest time. She shifted so that she sat midair -- or maybe they were on a floor, there was no way to tell. The “room” they were in was featureless and strange, devoid of any detail. It was just...black, far as the eye could see.

“...You’re…” Kaumudi was hit with so much at once. “You...are my powers?”

“I am  _ a _ manifestation of Ice Magic,” replied the sculpture.

“You...look just like me.”

“I take on many forms, each one unique to the person I choose. And nothing is more unique than one’s reflection, right?”

“...And you can talk?”

The sculpture hasn’t stopped smiling. “It’s more like...telepathy. I have no true voice of my own, therefore I’m feeding what I need to communicate directly into your mind, and here in this...dream world, I can finally be understood.”

Kaumudi touched her head reflexively, as if fearing some lump or disformity. She felt nothing out of the ordinary, just her own turquoise hair that she nervously toyed with.

“What do you mean, ‘understood’?” she asked. “Have you always been talking to me? Why are you appearing now? It’s been nearly seven moons. Does magic always invade dreams like this--?”

The Ice holds up her -- their? its? does magic have a gender? -- hand to stop Kaumudi’s nervous probing.

“Calm, child, one at a time.” It sounded amused.. “To put it simply, yes, I’ve always been talking to you. I communicate in feelings, in the sounds of wind resonating in a cavern, in flurries, in snowflakes, and in the hum of energy that flows from your heart to the rest of your body. So not in a way any human can understand me. I’m appearing now because tonight is the first night I’m able to break through that barrier of fear that has kept me prisoner inside your heart.” It lowered Its hand, pointing a crystalline finger at Kaumudi’s chest. “You’ve kept me at bay, child, letting your insecurities rule you. But I am proud; I have seen what you and that boy have been up to, and how far you’ve come towards accepting me.”

“I...well, thanks.” Kaumudi shyly tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “You’ve been...watching?”

“Always. I am Magic, or more specifically I am how Magic has manifested within you. But I am still Magic, and Magic is all around you, my dear. It’s how we gather and choose you. We peer into your heart’s deepest recesses and take the shape of its true partner. It can take some time to find the right fit -- humanity is composed of many layers, after all, and one day’s truth can be tomorrow’s lies -- but with you, child, we got it right on our first try. We burrowed into your heart and found Ice to be your soul’s mate.”

“How are you so certain that you didn’t make a mistake?” Kaumudi blurted out. “I didn’t have magic before you. I didn’t have any ‘trial periods’ for magic; I just...got powers one night, and that was it. How can you know  _ for sure _ that I am meant to wield Ice?”

Ice stopped, Its smile pursing into a look of deep thought as Its brow furrowed.

“...Well, first off, could you imagine yourself with any other element?” It asked. It was Kaumudi’s turn to think, touching her hand to her chin.

“...No, I suppose not, but honestly I didn’t expect to get  _ any _ magic,” she admitted.

“The blueprint of a soul is complex and difficult to understand and convey in human terms,” Ice explained. “But we found yours easy to read.”

“Then why was it so  _ horrible _ if Ice -- if  _ you _ are my element?”

Ice was silent again, looking like It trying to find a good way to phrase this next part.

“...Everything is different for each human,” It said finally, with some difficulty, as if still not having the right words. “Some people react differently to each element. Sometimes they can’t wield any at all. We don’t know exactly why yours was so...violent. Perhaps because this was your first Magic, your body was taken with shock. We know that soulmate magic can be especially impactful, so perhaps the strain of Magic on a newling combined with the intensity of this being your true element triggered this ‘anxiety attack’, and the experience left such an impression that, for a long time, controlling us was outside your mental reach.”

Kaumudi kneaded her bottom lip between her teeth. “You keep saying ‘we’,” she pointed out. “How come?”

“I told you: I am Magic. I am all Magic.” It touched Its chest solemnly. “I am Fire and Wind and Poison and Starlight and Void, but I take the form of Ice because that is the form I carry within you, because that is the balance your soul craves. That is why I introduced myself as Ice; you not need concern yourself with other kinds.”

“Why did you…” Kaumudi felt her head start to hurt. A headache in a dream was strange; usually one pinched themself to be sure they’re not dreaming, like pain is a phantom that can’t exist in the dreamscape. It was almost magnified here, and she held her head. “D-do you like being Magic? Do you like being…” She stopped, because she didn’t know what Its reaction would be being called--

“A slave to the will of man?” Ice prompted. “I don’t have emotions to  _ feel _ enjoyment with, child. It’s more like...hm. This is hard to talk about in your tongue, in your...human comprehension. Permit me to…”

It took Kaumudi’s face gently, unexpectedly soft to the touch, like newfallen snow. Ice covered her ears with Its frigid palms, Its thumbs resting against her temples. All at once, she heard a soft humming, ebbing and flowing like an ocean’s tide. She heard quiet music, syncopated and erratic despite its yearning to be on beat. She heard the rhythm being tugged this way and that, piano trying its hardest to keep to the sheet music.

“That is your soul, young one,” Ice told her, placing Its hands back in Its lap and taking the music with it. “It’s troubled, it’s longing, and I -- we -- want to right it. Don’t be alarmed,” It added, seeing worry creep onto Kaumudi’s face. “All souls sound like this. All souls have a piece missing, and our natural inclination is to right it.”

“... _ All _ souls? Everyone’s? Even those that don’t have magic?”

Ice was quiet for a second. “...There are two reason why a human wouldn’t have magic,” It admitted. “One is that the soul’s rhythm is too put together, too tight for us to wriggle inside and repair it.”

“And the other?”

“...The other reason is it’s broken beyond repair, too crazed and frantic, and we’re ejected forcibly from the wavelength,” It told her.

“That’s…”

“Here.” Ice covered her ears like It did previously. The rhythm that played now sounded like a complement to what Kaumudi just heard: a thrum of energy, steady like a bassline, with racing strings overlaid like an orchestral piece.

“This is what we sound like in your soul,” It explained. “We may appear limitless, but sometimes we cannot stretch ourself to fit a certain pattern.” The music faded when Ice retracted Its hands. “I hope that made a little sense; to explain it with words is...sometimes beyond me.”

“I think I get it,” said Kaumudi, nodding to accompany her words with meaning. “It...it sounds like music.”

“It’s the closest approximation to permit comprehension, yes.”

Kaumudi toyed with her hair again, wringing the long locks with her hands. “So, does this mean I can talk to you whenever I’d like? To get advice and stuff?”

“Unfortunately, no,” Ice told her. “But it will get easier for us to reach you as you gain mastery over us. We have to change ourself to reach your mind; the soul cannot change its wavelength that drastically nor suspend it in that position.”

“Oh.”

“But if you listen carefully, young one-” and It began to fade, dispelling into that blue-spectrum light- “you’ll hear us, always with you…in your soul…”

In a cascade of light, It bombarded her, pinpricks of cold in a waterfall all over. The world goes blue-white.

 

She woke up in a sweat as cold as the ice that coursed in her veins and breathing as hard and fast as her racing heart. But it sat better with her somehow, chilly but still, like a windless winter day full of sun. She touched a hand to her heart, pensive. Did that really happen? She felt lightheaded, disoriented, as she stood up.

“Kaumudi?” Hacim tapped lightly at her thin door, and she felt bursting with excitement suddenly. “You almost ready?”

“Hacim!” She leapt over and threw open the door, startling the boy she adored like a brother. “You won’t  _ believe _ what just happened to me!”


End file.
